1. Technical Field
The present invention concerns a device for attaching a heat sink, and more particularly to a device for attaching a heat sink to an electronic unit generating heat such as central processing unit of a computer.
2. Related Art
Technological development has significantly reduced the sizes of computer systems with increasing their capacities, so that various electronic devices including semiconductor devices may be packaged into a single semiconductor module. For example, a high speed central processing unit is usually achieved by packaging a cache memory and processor. The heat sink is to absorb or dissipate the heat generated during the operation of such a semiconductor module.
I have found that inefficient methods and devices for attaching a heat sink to a heat producing unit can be extremely inconvenient. Efforts have been made to improve heat sinks and securing means for heat sinks.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,393 for CLAMPING HEAT SINK issued to Vasconcelos, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,258 for CPU HEAT SINK FASTENER issued to Lin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,305 for ANCHOR FOR SECURING HEAT SINK TO A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD issued to Smithers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,639 for STRUCTURE FOR ATTACHING A HEAT SINK TO A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE issued to Furuno, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,403 for CLAMPING DEVICE ADAPTED FOR SECURING A HEAT SINK TO A CPU MOUNT TO HOLD DOWN A CPU issued to Chiou, U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,782 for APPARATUS FOR ATTACHING A HEAT SINK TO A PCB MOUNTED SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE issued to Thurston, et al., U.S. Pat. No. P5,396,402 for APPLIANCE FOR ATTACHING HEAT SINK TO PIN GRID ARRAY AND SOCKET issued to Perugini, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,041 for SELF CLAMPING HEAT SINK issued to Hannon, U.S. Pat. No. P5,521,439 for COMBINATION AND METHOD FOR COUPLING A HEAT SINK TO A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE issued to Casati, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,392 for CPU HEAT DISSIPATING APPARATUS issued to Shen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,571 for APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CLIP-ON ATTACHMENT OF HEAT SINKS TO ENCAPSULATED SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGES issued to Mertol, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,610 for SEPARABLE POSITIONING DEVICE FOR THE HEAT SINK ON COMPUTER CHIPS issued to Hung.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide a method for efficiently and conveniently attaching a heat sink.